In electric arc welding, a popular welding process uses a solid wire electrode fed with a wire feeder. At the start of welding, an arc must be established between the electrode tip and the workpiece. When the tip of the electrode includes contamination, damage, and/or hardened material that was previously molten material, it can be difficult to establish the arc. These conditions can be caused by the electrode wire continuing to feed through the wire feeder after the wire feeder is signaled to stop feeding wire. In particular, a response lag associated with stopping the wire feeder can cause the electrode wire to make contact with the workpiece after the welder has stopped welding.
In view of the foregoing problems and shortcomings of existing welding apparatus, the present application describes a system and method to overcome these shortcomings.